An international journal for teachers and language materials creators

Between the Keys
Volume 31.3 / 2023

• A New Look for Between the Keys
• From Zero to Textbook in Ten
Months• Conference Report: PanSIG 2023!

• Preparing Teaching Materials for
an ESP Course in Japan• PLUS: Musings on MarkeLng,
ChaNerbot, and lots more!

Between the Keys 31.3
Table of Contents

LeNer from the PublicaLon Chair

3

by Joel Neﬀ
A New Look for Between the Keys

4

by Marcus Grandon
Feature: From Zero to Textbook in Ten Months: Self-publishing

6

Materials for a Self-Access Learning Centerby Joshua Lee Solomon and Reik Jagno
Conference Report: PanSIG 2023 Looking Forward: Sustainable

21

Futures in Language EducaLon
by Kinsella Valies with contribu?ons from Geoﬀ Carr, Josh Kidd andBethany Lacy
Musings on MarkeLng: On Your Mark: From ConcepLon to PublicaLon

29

by Josh Kidd and Miklos Juhasz
ChaNerbot: Prompt Revising for CEFR Levels

37

by Adam Murray
Feature: Key Lesson: Preparing Teaching Materials for an ESP Course in

45

Japan
by MaFhew Quinn
Messages: Recent AddiLons to the MW SIG Showcase

68

Messages: An Announcement from the Writers' Peer Support Group69

Call for Submissions

70

Acknowledgements

74

Links & Resources

75

Copyright Statement762

LeNer from the PublicaLon Chair
Joel Neﬀ
Dear Readers,
Summer is upon us. What could be beFer than staying indoors under the air condi?oner? Staying
indoors under the air condi?oner with a mammoth-sized issue of Between the Keys! Fortunately, that’s justwhat we have for you this ?me out.
As men?oned last issue, we here at Between the Keys are bringing out some changes to themagazine and, this issue, we have a major change in the form of our new cover. The new cover is centeredaround an art piece created by our Treasurer, Marcus Grandon. Marcus and our Coordinator, Adam Murraythen designed the cover around it. As if that weren't enough, Marcus has wriFen a thoughUul explana?on of
the meaning and intent behind the art.
But this issue is about more than art. We have three pieces about the crea?on of textbooks ormaterials for teaching from a variety of authors. First, Joshua Lee Solomon and Reik Jagno take us throughtheir journey in crea?ng a textbook from nothing. Then, Josh Kidd and Miklos Juhasz take us on a similar andyet unique journey of their own in geXng their textbook published. Finally, MaFhew Quinn gives us someadvice on the crea?on of materials speciﬁcally for ESL courses in Japan.
In between these pieces comes a report from Member-at-large Kinsella Valies about all thehappenings at this year’s PanSIG conference, and ﬁnally, our own Adam Murray has wriFen the inauguralpiece in our new ChaFerbot column where we explore the implica?ons of and best prac?ces for using a.i.
tools in the classroom.
We wrap the whole issue up with a few words of thanks and acknowledgement as well as our usual
links to the Materials Writers SIG resources and our guidelines in case you have a piece you’re thinking about
sending us (and, if you do, please do!)We hope you enjoy all 76 pages of this summer issue and that you have a great summer holiday.
Thank you for reading,Joel Neﬀ
Summer 2023

3

LeNer from the ArLst
A New Look for Between the Keys
Working as an educator, researcher, and ar?st, I feel extremely honored to haveone of my images depicted on the new-look cover for Between the Keys (BtK). When the
Materials Writers team decided to update the cover, it provided an opportunity to have thepublica?on reﬂect a contemporary feeling that aligns with other respected journals in theﬁeld. While I created the images and did much of the layout, the ﬁnal output is a productof the SIG team as the process entailed mul?ple sugges?ons, itera?ons, and tweaks. Many
thanks to all those involved.
In the new design, there is a signiﬁcant number of elements imbued with meaning
for us as materials writers in Japan. First, we’ve gone with a vibrant image that you may or
may not recognize as Mt. Fuji in abstract (Figure 1). It depicts an ‘Aka-Fuji’ or ‘red-Fuji’,ogen portrayed in Japanese art, which shows the color of sunlight hiXng the mountainaround dawn or dusk. In Japanese lore, seeing an ‘Aka-Fuji’ is thought to bring good luck.
What’s more, these bold colors are termed ‘high key’ in the world of image produc?on, aﬁXng tribute to a publica?on with ‘keys’ as a part of its name.

Figure 1 Main Graphic of Updated Cover Design4

LeNer from the ArLst
A New Look for Between the Keys
The original image is a photograph that I took of Fuji. I turned the photo into an
abstract by running it through a variety of ﬁlters and eﬀects, including an early ar?ﬁcial
intelligence engine. Once I had the main, abstract image, I duplicated it twice. Then, I blew
up one of the duplicates to use as a background, and I included the full, main image on theleg side and placed the third duplica?on all the way to the right-hand side cuXng it oﬀ a
bit, which I feel produces a feeling of mo?lity. In this layout, there is space between thetwo images atop the background layer, which is a play on ‘Between’ for Between the Keys.
So, something occupies the space between the full, main abstract and the third one—abackground showing depth that indicates something more resides behind the image,something more between the keys as it were, perhaps alluding to the text that lies within
the journal.
In the nega?ve space on the rest of the cover, the dominant, red color has
signiﬁcance. This red matches the red of the abstract Fuji. So, like in prior covers, thesimplicity of the nega?ve, red space gives us an opportunity to present the table ofcontents and our logo. Furthermore, it provides an opportunity to change up these colors
going forward. It might be that we change this dominant red for certain seasons like othernotable journals.
This new look for BtK preserves a legacy to earlier covers of Between the Keys
through design elements such as the small ‘the’ in the ?tle and use of nega?ve space. As
one of the oldest SIGs in JALT, we wanted to keep ?es alive to the work of past SIG
members while we stand on their shoulders.

Marcus Grandon
Summer 2023

5

Feature

From Zero to Textbook in Ten Months:
Self-publishing Materials for a SelfAccess Learning Center

byJoshua Lee Solomon
andReik Jagno

6

Feature
From Zero to Textbook in Ten Months
Abstract:
This ar?cle traces the hec?c development of Tsugaru Life: English Through Local Topics, a
141-page textbook designed with a regional focus for use in the Hirosaki University selfaccess learning center (SALC), the English Lounge, published in March 2021. It explains thevery prac?cal reasons behind the self-developed textbook, the ?ght schedule andcollabora?on among ﬁve faculty members, as well as the chapter and task design. It oﬀers
our view on the merits of self-publishing for SALCs speciﬁcally, and also for any educator
engaged in community outreach programs or remote teaching. It should be of interest to
any party considering self-publishing their own textbook, and, the authors hope, it should
be an encouraging example of how publishing in this style does not have to be
overwhelming at all.

Keywords: self-publishing, self-access learning center (SALC), English as a Foreign Language
(EFL)

7

Feature
From Zero to Textbook in Ten Months
This arHcle discusses the circumstances surrounding the creaHon of Tsugaru Life: English
Through Local Topics (Tada et al., 2021), its form and content, the collaboraHve process of
its composiHon, and some of the myriad minor road bumps that cropped up along the way.

Figure 1. Tsugaru Life cover image

8

Feature
From Zero to Textbook in Ten Months
1. Reasons for this Project
Recall, if you may, the days of early 2020 just as the Coronavirus was beginning to
be recognized as a global threat, public ins?tu?ons hurriedly began conver?ng to online
opera?ons, and travel became severely restricted. Hirosaki University, too, switched toonline instruc?on, followed by restricted face-to-face classes. This had signiﬁcantrepercussions for the opera?on of our self-access learning center (SALC), the English
Lounge. While SALC teaching ac?vi?es could be conducted remotely, other func?ons were
essen?ally shut down. In addi?on, travel restric?ons meant that the budget reserved fortravel was prac?cally unusable. This leg us ﬁve SALC teachers in the enviable posi?on of
having an excess of funding. What else to do but write a textbook?
Our tone may be glib, but serious incen?ves for producing a textbook for the SALC
became apparent as the pandemic dragged on. First of all, the English Lounge conducts
annual social contribu?on workshops, invi?ng local ci?zens and students for English study,
ac?vi?es, and cultural exchange. Having planned and executed a variety of such workshops
in the past, it was apparent that having a substan?al textbook to draw upon would allow
for a reduced burden on the organizers, compared with constantly designing bespoke
events from whole cloth, as we had in the past.
Second, there were issues with copyright. Photocopying of commercial textbooks is
not allowed for classroom use, meaning that SALC teachers must either self-produce
materials or invest in purchasing many copies of a single textbook. An addi?onal copyrightconcern has emerged speciﬁcally in our “post-Corona” world. Japanese copyright law canbe quite arcane, but it has been made clear that textbooks are generally regulated torestrict their use in both asynchronous and many live remote teaching contexts. Whilemost of the major foreign EFL publishers provide for speciﬁc allowances on this front, notall publishers do—especially domes?c ones. This special considera?on should be taken
into account when choosing a textbook for online instruc?on. Supposing the con?nua?onof online tui?on, ins?tu?onally owning the copyright to teaching materials oﬀers wellappreciated ﬂexibility.
Another impetus for the textbook project ?es back to the English Lounge’s history

9Feature
From Zero to Textbook in Ten Monthsof public contribu?on workshops. Our university’s moFo is “Communica?ng to the world;
crea?ng with our community” (sekai ni hasshin shi, chiiki to tomoni sōzō suru). We are told
to place emphasis on promo?ng “glocal” educa?on, deﬁned as combining a global
perspec?ve with local ac?on (Hirosaki University). There is addi?onally a growing body ofscholarship aFes?ng to the use of culturally-familiar materials in EFL educa?on (e.g.
Sheridan et al., 2019; Sheridan et al., 2018; Carson, 2019; Segni & Davidson, 2016). Tsugaru
Life was therefore designed to both meet the university’s goals and be pedagogicallyeﬀec?ve in its inclusion of “the local.”
2. What Kind of Textbook is it?
The ?tle of the textbook, Tsugaru Life, refers to the local region in Aomori
Prefecture and its dis?nct culture. Tsugaru has a long history and is instantly recognized bymany locals as a signiﬁcant part of their iden?ty. Learners using this book will gain skills
and knowledge to discuss their local area in a structured way, in English, with people
unfamiliar with the area. Tsugaru Life is broken into an introduc?on, ﬁve units (Natural
Wonders, Sweet Tooth, Performing Arts, Good Eats, and Groundhopping), an agerword,
acknowledgements, image index, and glossary.
As one cri?cism we had of many textbooks published in Japan is an overreliance on
Japanese text and transla?on, we chose to deploy Japanese language quite strategically.
The introduc?on, explaining the textbook’s genesis and oﬀering our user guide, is given in
Japanese as a friendly overture to the ?tle. Unit names and introduc?ons are provided inboth Japanese and English, as parallel texts. This helps ease less conﬁdent students into
the unit, scaﬀolds their reading of the English text, and gives the instructor an opportunity
to introduce transla?on exercises. Reading ?tles and vocabulary words are also translated
into Japanese. The back maFer, presumably encountered primarily ager working throughthe lessons in the heart of the textbook, is presented only in English. Finally, as the purposeof the glossary is to help students translate their thoughts from Japanese to English, eachterm is presented in both Japanese and English.
As the target students are either locals already generally familiar with the area orvisi?ng students looking to learn more, most reading topics were intended to represent

10Feature
From Zero to Textbook in Ten Months
local culture that is either not already strongly represented by the tourism industry or not
readily available in English. This is the main “hook” of the textbook.
Each unit contains three readings of approximately 300–400 words each. Each isheaded with nine vocabulary words and deﬁni?ons, which are highlighted in the text.
Photographs are included in readings when possible. Each passage is followed by an
example conversa?on about the topic between a tourist and a tour guide. Each reading
sec?on ends with “further thinking” ac?vi?es. These are three ques?ons intended toprompt the student to think about (1) their personal experience, (2) applying the reading
more broadly, such as rela?ng it to the prefecture as a whole or to health or social issues,and (3) what they know and how they can relate it to cultures around the world. Finally,each unit concludes with a “conversa?on prac?ce,” a dialogue in which only the tourist’s
side is provided and it is the student’s task to supply the tour guide’s responses based onwhat they learned throughout the unit.

Figure 2A. Sample pages from Tsugaru Life

11

Feature
From Zero to Textbook in Ten Months

Figure 2B. Sample pages from Tsugaru Life

The textbook closes with a brief glossary of 39 terms. The introduc?on to theglossary, wriFen in English, explains its purpose as a pedagogical tool:[I]t provides useful explana?ons, not transla?ons. If you look up yōkan in adic?onary, it will probably say “agar jelly.” If you look up kamoshika, it willprobably say “Japanese serow.” These are correct transla?ons, but not many
English speakers will know those words. As such, explana?ons are moremeaningful than transla?ons. (Tada et al., 2021, p. 127)
The explana?on goes on to introduce some useful phrases for introducing Japaneseculture, par?ally inspired by Davies (2018). The body of the glossary is divided into
categories like “Geography and Regions,” “Fes?vals,” and “Food,” and contains terminology
the authors felt would be useful for locals talking about their culture in English. Each item

12

Feature
From Zero to Textbook in Ten Months
is given an English shorthand name, a Japanese equivalent, and a brief example of how it
could be explained in English.
The last considera?on was the produc?on of recordings (because, why not?). The
recordings allow learners to hear the important vocabulary and concepts for the unit inAmerican English spoken by na?ves. Conversely, the dialogues were recorded by two nonna?ve speakers, with reversed roles. A na?ve German speaker, with a more challenging
accent, assumes the role of a tour guide, showing a na?ve Japanese speaker around thearea. The decision to include non-na?ve English speakers was to emphasize English as a
global language and also to play with the expecta?ons of the textbook users.
3. How did we do it?
So, how did ﬁve English instructors conceive of, plan, write, design, and self-publish
an en?re textbook in about ten months? Acknowledging that such speed resulted in somedegree of lowered quality—some typos will inevitably fall through the cracks—the project
was deliberately planned methodically and developed around a modular format thataﬀorded easy elabora?on and itera?on. In addi?on, each unit and reading topic wasdesigned not only to appeal to poten?al textbook users, but also to coordinate with theauthors’ various ﬁelds of exper?se, interest, and experience.
The project started with in-person brainstorming, including referencing othersimilar textbooks. This was followed by the produc?on of a master document outlining the
purpose, crucial dates, unit outline, list of possible reading themes, and other random
notes. The shared document organized the brainstorming and set the work ?meline,
although it would subsequently be supplanted by documents for each individual unit. The
crea?on of this document was immediately followed by two sample readings. Neither
sample would be used in the ﬁnal product, but their crea?on was quick and oﬀered aconcrete vision of what the ﬁnal version might look like. Indeed, it was thanks to theseearly drags that the need to both take a more inten?onal approach to layout design(discussed in more detail below) and rethink some of the wriFen tasks became apparent.
A textbook is a diﬀerent kind of product from a research ar?cle, and in our case, we foundthat ini?ally approaching with a prototyping mindset was more suitable than

13

Feature
From Zero to Textbook in Ten Months
thinking through drags.
You may be surprised to read that producing two whole sample readings andassociated tasks was a “quick” endeavor, and that they were so easily discarded. Yet it was
because all of the readings and tasks relied on the strengths and experiences of the team.
The ﬁve authors were each English teachers, three with par?cularly long careers andextensive experience with a variety of textbooks and teaching methods. But we—and you—are more than just mere English teachers! While some topics required a bit morebackground research than others, many of the items prac?cally wrote themselves because
they were derived from professional knowledge (of literature, culture, history), interests (insports, food, nature) and experience (from simply living here for literally decades) the teamalready had at hand.
One poten?al drawback from the expedited development process was an inability
to ﬁne-tune lesson texts in terms of vocabulary level and gramma?cal complexity. In
addi?on, it would not have been feasible to aFempt a textbook-long progression in which
each new reading or task called back to and built upon earlier lessons (this would be
addressed by the complementary workbook we published the following year). Rather, we
opted for a modular construc?on of the textbook to streamline development andul?mately to oﬀer greater ﬂexibility in teaching. With this design, readings can be selectedon the spot, according to the needs and interests of the students in the room, rather thanstrictly adhering to a mul?-week syllabus covering lessons A to Z. This style textbook ﬁts
par?cularly well with the needs of a SALC, which may hold single-day workshops, or may
see a variety of diﬀerent par?cipants over the course of a mul?-week seminar.
This is not to suggest that no thought went into the technical planning of the texts.
We primarily relied on a Flesch-Kincaid analysis to ensure a balance in textual diﬃculty1.
While not all scores were uniform, the earlier units in the book were kept between gradelevel 7-10, whereas the laFer units rise to grade level 9-11. As men?oned above, the“further thinking” ac?vi?es were also designed to encourage learners to develop theirperspec?ve from personal to cri?cal to interna?onal. And by including an open-ended

1 A Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score is mathema?cally calculated by using the average sentence length andaverage syllables per word and then correlated to an American grade school level. The scores can be rapidly
calculated using an online text analysis tool (e.g. TextCompare).

14

Feature
From Zero to Textbook in Ten Months
dialogue at the end of each unit, we oﬀer an opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills
aFained through the prior three readings.
4. Problems and ConsideraLons
Although we are pleased with how the project came together and have been able
to make use of it in a variety of contexts in and out of our SALC, things were not always
smooth sailing and there are some important considera?ons to be had. These issues can bebroadly divided into categories of process and technology.
Some of the issues that cropped up during the process of composi?on centeredaround team interac?ons and workload. Team members brought diﬀerent skills andknowledge—linguis?c, technical, and otherwise—to the table, and we had to learn torecognize and accept our various strengths and weaknesses. Communica?ng with poten?alpublishers, learning the technology necessary to properly format the textbook, wri?ng
texts, recording audio…each of these tasks fell on the shoulders of team members in
diﬀerent propor?ons. Part of the “team” was also the ins?tu?on, which had manyrequirements including to report to superiors and work within certain structures. The
ins?tu?on also included a number of colleagues who were able to provide feedback andproofreading of ﬁnal drags.
Another extended part of the “team” was outside en??es, including local
businesses and a student ar?st. Be mindful of copyright and privacy issues pertaining tophotographs and textual inclusions: anything involving a local business requires wriFen
permission. In most cases, we were greeted with enthusias?c coopera?on; in others
pa?ence and understanding were necessary. We also used art produced by students in theuniversity’s manga club inside the textbook. The cover art was designed by one of theauthors, so copyright and payment were not a considera?on. Images in the textbook,including some provided by the local businesses, are all credited in the back maFer.
Finally, we met with several prospec?ve publishers and printers early in the project.
Our university encourages the use of local vendors, so we were limited to about three orfour op?ons. It quickly became apparent that most of the prohibi?ve costs associated with15

Feature
From Zero to Textbook in Ten Months
publishing come from interven?on in the formaXng and typeseXng of the book itself. We
made the decision early on to take care of all of the document prepara?on ourselves andoutsource the prin?ng. Mee?ng with the printers, we discussed paper size, quality, binding
type, etc. It was helpful to do this only ager we were able to ballpark the ﬁnal page count,
including color pages, so that we could receive concrete cost es?mates. While some ofthese points have been raised elsewhere (e.g. Spiri, 2018; McNabb, 2017), they bearrepea?ng: your ﬁrst textbook will contain errors or things you will want to change, so
prin?ng a smaller number at a higher cost per unit may save you headache, money, andexcess stock when you decide to make that second edi?on. Choose a paper that can be
wriFen on with pencil; glossy stock is out. Finally, be cau?ous of the printer’s schedule: theend of the academic year is ogen a par?cularly busy ?me.
The following table summarizes the major considera?ons and our recommended
measures:
Considera?ons

Recommended Ac?ons

Collaborator workload
and varying
contribu?ons among
the team- Acknowledge diﬀerent responsibili?es in the process- Be polite but honest in cri?ques, especially of wri?ng- Delineate jobs clearly early in the process- Accept unevenness as a reality of working as a team: dispari?es are ogen bornfrom diﬀerent special?es and abili?es, and are not necessarily a bad thing- Work democra?cally, but establish who gets the ﬁnal say, or otherwise anothereﬃcient method of pushing the project forward when there are diﬀerences of
opinions

Ins?tu?onal process- Get permission for conduc?ng the project from superiors- Communicate with superiors ac?vely throughout the process, and report its
comple?on- Secure outside opinions from colleagues who can view your project from greater
distance and with less bias than you

Inclusion of local
businesses in the text

- Establish empirical founda?on for decision to include one business over another(especially important for na?onal university)- Get permission from the business for men?oning them, including for taking
photographs- Check their preferred romaniza?on of business name, products, people, or
anything else men?oned in the text
- Write courtesy leFers and send copies of textbook post publica?on

Table 1. ConsideraLons and Recommended AcLons

16Feature
From Zero to Textbook in Ten Months
Considera?ons

Recommended Ac?ons

Inclusion of local
businesses in the text

- Establish empirical founda?on for decision to include one business over another(especially important for na?onal university)- Get permission from the business for men?oning them, including for taking
photographs- Check their preferred romaniza?on of business name, products, people, or
anything else men?oned in the text
- Write courtesy leFers and send copies of textbook post publica?on

Art- Consider hiring student ar?sts from the university, e.g. from a manga/illustra?onclub- Get digital ﬁles at a high enough resolu?on to print (300 dpi for about 10cm x
20cm image is recommended)- Follow university guidelines for payment- Get the art, or at least drags, early in the process to help the layout process- Ensure the ins?tu?on receives the copyright and reproduc?on rights to the art- Acknowledge the ar?st in the publica?on- Maintain a consistent art style

FormaXng and Prin?ng - Because Word ﬁles can display diﬀerently on Teams, online, and desktop, as wellas English and Japanese versions, only the lead editor should control the master
ﬁle- The master ﬁle should be comprised of a Word document and an up-to-date PDF
to avoid the aforemen?oned display errors- To avoid overburdening the lead editor, keep communica?on alive and reportchanges and feedback as early as possible to avoid a backlog or major changes
once the manuscript is nearing comple?on- Meet the printer only when you have an es?mated page count, including thenumber of pages in color- Ask early if the printer has requirements for formaXng, ﬁle types, or anythingelse, and ensure you have the technical capacity to deliver- Check prin?ng ?mes based on the ?me of year; the end of the ﬁscal year may see
more delays than earlier- Calculate 4-8 weeks for trial prints, and check them in detail when they arrive- Use domes?c (or even local printers) if your ins?tu?on recommends- Register an ISBN online for about ¥8,000

Table 1. ConsideraLons and Recommended AcLons ConLnued
The second set of issues pertain to technology, which was a constant presence
throughout the en?re process. First of all, we employed a wide variety of sogware
throughout:

17Feature
From Zero to Textbook in Ten Months
SogwarePurposeMicrosog Teams

Collabora?on, ﬁle sharing and organiza?on

Microsog Word 360

Individual unit and other text composi?on, cover
designAdobe Publisher, Adobe InDesign

Manuscript crea?on and edi?ng

Audacity, Mac QuickTime

Audio recording

WordPress

Homepage construc?on, ﬁle hos?ng

Table 2. Sofware and Purpose
Of course, sogware programs are tools, and they can be misunderstood and misused. As
implied in the formaXng and prin?ng sec?on of Table 1, we encountered a number ofproblems when opening documents in diﬀerent versions of Word. In addi?on, while weplanned for simultaneous collabora?on on the documents for much of the project, it
became apparent that some members were downloading ﬁles and altering out-of-datemanuscripts. Careless ﬁle management like this resulted in the ﬁnal editor having to comb
the en?re book for inconsistencies and should be avoided at all costs. During the ﬁnal
stages of edi?ng the equivalent of a proof, we resorted to hand-wri?ng changes into asingle printed copy that was passed from person to person, leaving the lead editor to input
everything himself.
Although the wri?ng itself was done in Word, the ﬁle for the printers was compiledin Adobe Publisher. One team member with excep?onal organiza?onal and technical skills
was nominated to learn the sogware and manage all of the master ﬁles, taking on the jobof lead editor. In his view, one aspect of textbook publishing that should not be
underes?mated is design. Academics some?mes have a tendency to assume that thequality of content is the readers’ primary concern. To the contrary, EFL textbook users are
predominantly students and non-academics. Therefore, it is especially crucial to present a
professional and appealing product with an ergonomic style to improve the textbook’su?lity and aFrac?veness and to generate aFen?on for it ager publica?on. Our lead editor’s
many hours of eﬀort essen?ally covered the hundreds of thousands of yen fees that would

18

Feature
From Zero to Textbook in Ten Months
have been charged by a professional publishing ﬁrm.
Finally, theories and ideals discussed in papers such as these are wonderful, but inprac?ce the best laid plans go og awry, and the basic layout was regularly (uninten?onally)
wrecked by the colleagues involved, even when they were provided with a template. In theend, the most important element was to dedicate a single editor to set and check theformat as well as all edits to the manuscript. This process should be an?cipated, as thelayout for this textbook ul?mately took between two to three months. It is vital to remain
cognizant of the process here again, just as with the draging of the texts. It requires
eﬀec?ve communica?on, teamwork, and a me?culous control of the ﬁnal implementa?on.
In the end, we decided on an unobtrusive design, using simple shapes and clear design
elements, in order to not distract from the content. Tsugaru Life is clearly branded throughthe art and color design as part of the English Lounge. These design principles are now
used to reinforce our facility’s branding and have also been applied in subsequent
publica?ons.
5. Final Words
As with any project, the circumstances of our wri?ng, planning, and publishingwere unique and likely not applicable in their en?rety to the vast majority of readers here.
However, when they are dissected, we believe there are lessons applicable to prospec?ve
writers in various contexts.
Ager Tsugaru Life, the same team worked together to create a companion
workbook. Addi?onally, our team’s intrepid German took the ini?a?ve to translate bothtexts into his na?ve language. Working with a Japanese colleague, they have published two
polished volumes which have been excep?onally well-received by local German teachers.
This is a ﬁnal example of how the crea?on of a bespoke text tailored to a speciﬁc context
can ﬁnd a wider readership (or, perhaps, a market).
Please feel free to contact the authors if you have any ques?ons or would likeaccess to the PDF version of the textbook.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to our fellow authors Tada Megumi, Brian Birdsell, and Katagiri Sanae foryour constant collabora?on.

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From Zero to Textbook in Ten Months
References
Carson, G. (2019). Listening Comprehension through Culturally Familiar Contexts: A
Case Study in Japan. PASAA: Journal of Language Teaching and Learning in
Thailand, 58, 41–61.
Davies, B. (2018). “It’s a kind of...Explaining Japanese Culture in English.” TLT MyShare42(4), hFps://jalt-publica?ons.org/ar?cles/24335-it%E2%80%99s-kind%E2%80%A6-explaining-japanese-culture-english
Hirosaki University. (n.d.). Surōgan/rinen/shōrai bijon (slogan/philosophy/future
vision). Hirosaki University. hFps://www.hirosaki-u.ac.jp/info/about/vision/
McNabb, G. R. (2017). Professional level self-publishing in Japan. Between the Keys,
24(3), 9–12.
Segni, B. B. & Davidson, M. (2016). The Prac?ces of Teaching English as a Foreign
Language Using Local Cultural Contents. Research Journal of English Language
and Literature, 4(4), 669–674. hFp://www.rjelal.com/4.4.16c/
669-674%20BELACHEW%20BEYENE%20SEGNI.pdf
Sheridan, R., Tanaka, K. M., & Hogg, N. (2019). Foreign Language, Local Culture: How
Familiar Contexts Impact Learning and Engagement. TESL-EJ, 23(1), 1–27.
Sheridan, R., Tanaka, K. M., & Kobayashi, J. M. (2018). Culture and construc?vism: A
new approach to student-centered English language educa?on in Japan. Kindai
University Center for Liberal Arts and Foreign Language Educa?on Journal(Foreign Language Edi?on), 9(2), 33–56.
Spiri, J. (2018). PuXng it all together: Making your teaching materials into a textbook.
Between the Keys, 26(2), 8–11.
Tada, M., Birdsell, B. J., Solomon, J. L., Katagiri, S., Jagno, R. (2021). Tsugaru Life: English
Through Local Topics. Hirosaki Daigaku Ingurishhu Raunji.
TextCompare. (2022). Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease Readability Calculator. TextCompare.
hFps://www.textcompare.org/readability/ﬂesch-kincaid-reading-ease20Column

Conference Report:
PanSIG 2023 Looking Forward:
Sustainable Futures in Language
EducaLon
byKinsella Valies with contribuLons
from Geoﬀ Carr, Josh Kidd andBethany Lacy

21

Conference Report
Sustainable Futures in Language EducaHon
AFending PanSIG 2023 from May 12 to May 14 in person at Kyoto Sangyo
University was a nostalgic and joyous occasion ager several years of online conferences.
The event commenced with well-aFended Friday social events. One of the highlights of the
day was the delighUul and invigora?ng agernoon walk to Seiryuden and Kiyomizudera led
by Amanda Gillis-Furutaka. A group of 20 individuals gathered at 13:30 at Higashiyama
subway sta?on exit 2 on the Tozai line, where they were warmly greeted by Kyoto Sangyo
University ESS Tour Guide Sec?on students and a member of the KSU academic staﬀ. The
students served as excellent guides, oﬀering their exper?se on Kiyomizudera and leading
the group on a leisurely walk up Shogunzuka, through the enchan?ng forest, and down toKiyomizudera. Along the way, the group engaged in enjoyable and s?mula?ng
conversa?on, forging many new connec?ons. They strolled, laughed, and shared jokes
while capturing photographs of the breathtaking views over Kyoto and documen?ng
encounters with the splendid surroundings and fellow par?cipants. At Kiyomizudera, someentered the temple while others explored the grounds. To top oﬀ the agernoon,
par?cipants explored the winding cobbled streets ﬁlled with bustling shops and delectabledining op?ons at their leisure. The me?culous planning and guidance provided by Amanda
and her team at KSU were greatly appreciated, demonstra?ng their dedica?on, pa?ence,and exper?se.
On Saturday, over 550 aFendees were
expected at the venue. The loca?on's natural
beauty was showcased almost cinema?cally,
with picturesque views that unfolded asaFendees ascended each level via escalators.
As early morning arrivals gradually made their
way to Building Six, the organizers prepared toopen registra?on, and the mood was alreadyjovial and posi?ve.
The conference, featuring 260 sessions,commenced with the plenary ?tled"Possibili?es and Challenges Aﬀorded by COIL
in English Language Teaching" by Mitsuyo
Kyoto Sangyo University Campus

Sakamoto.

22Conference Report
Sustainable Futures in Language EducaHon
The insights into the theore?cal framework of the research were truly fascina?ng. The
guidebook descrip?on had piqued the aFendees' interest, and they were eagerly
an?cipa?ng an insighUul explora?on of COIL and its prac?cal applica?ons. However, someaFendees were disappointed with the study itself, as it turned out to be a standard COIL
project that oﬀered limited innova?ve classroom prac?ces and leg liFle room for cri?cal
discussion.
One of the early morning sessions on
Saturday was led by Hamish Smith, whoshared his experiences as a teacher in his
speaking class. The aim of his research
project was to enhance engagement andassessment in class conversa?ons throughthe use of newly created guidelines. He
demonstrated interac?ve techniques that hehad developed, emphasizing the poten?al ofvisual prompts to spark discussions. The
session underscored the importance ofmoving beyond typical WH-ques?ons,
encouraging par?cipants to help students
expand their conversa?ons beyond narrow
PromoHng Topic Expansion andSpontaneity in Peer-to-Peer Speaking
Tasks

topics and explore personal applica?ons,
fostering topic expansion and spontaneity inpeer-to-peer speaking tasks.

Timothy Mossman presented on how neuroscience can be employed to support thedevelopment of English language skills. His presenta?on, ?tled "Enhancing Students'
English Language Skills through Neurolanguage Coaching," provided a construc?ve
introduc?on to brain-based learning for novices, covering both theory and prac?cal
applica?ons associated with a university-based coaching program. Educators werepar?cularly interested in the theory and data from the classroom, including classroombased observa?ons and student feedback.

23

Conference Report
Sustainable Futures in Language EducaHon
InsighUul presenta?ons were delivered by faculty members from Utsunomiya
University. The ﬁrst presenta?on, "Mul?modality in the L2 Classroom," was delivered by
Rory Banwell, Josh Kidd, and Chieko Mimura. The presenters discussed the signiﬁcance of
embodiment in language learning and the role of mul?modal learning in facilita?ng thetransi?on of informa?on into long-term memory. They provided illumina?ng and thoughtprovoking examples of how these ideas have been implemented in English language
classes at Utsunomiya and shared valuable feedback based on their own experiences.
AFendees conﬁrmed the eﬃcacy of similar approaches in their own curriculum, gaining
new perspec?ves on how to improve their teaching by engaging students' senses andhelping them experience language in context.

MulHmodality in the L2 classroom
The second presenta?on described a professional development course forteachers that introduced brain-based principles of second language acquisi?on andprovided prac?cal teaching strategies. The presenters emphasized the relevance ofneuroscience-based L2 teaching in university contexts and oﬀered sugges?ons forteachers with liFle prior experience in this area to employ basic principles in theclassroom. The presenta?on acknowledged the eﬀort required to design andimplement an ambi?ous program like Utsunomiya's and reinforced the importance ofongoing professional development, providing prac?cal strategies for improving
teaching prac?ce.

24Conference Report
Sustainable Futures in Language EducaHon
Avril Haye-Matsui's presenta?on on "Iden?ty and Pedagogy" aFracted a substan?alaudience, highligh?ng the important experiences of black female English language
professionals in Japan. The audience exhibited a degree of diversity, with an impressive
80% of par?cipants being women. The speaker successfully shared intersec?onal
experiences, genera?ng a sense of awareness and engagement among the aFendees.
The presenters of "Looking Forward: The Case for Adop?ng CLIL Curricula inJapanese Higher Ed.” focused on ﬁrst-year university students and the impact of a contentbased curriculum on their TOEFL scores. The presenta?on showcased modules used in the
curriculum and addressed the challenges associated with CLIL, along with students'
opinions on various sec?ons and modes of instruc?on. Students in the midst of comple?ng
their ﬁrst semester of a CLIL curriculum shared their feedback, covering content areas andsugges?ng areas for improvement.
The most well-aFended presenta?ons were the numerous talks on AI. AFendees
were cap?vated by JeaneFe Dennisson and Gary Ross' presenta?on on the poten?al use of
Speech Recogni?on and ChatGPT technology in the ESP classroom. The talk shed light on
the challenges Japanese university students ogen encounter when learning English forSpeciﬁc Purposes (ESP). Dennisson and Ross shared the results of their work, which
focused on ESP in the medical context with a sample of non-na?ve English-speaking
students. The students engaged in tasks that incorporated the use of ChatGPT text-tospeech-to-text bridge to assist with spoken tasks requiring speciﬁc medical vocabulary andsentence structures. The Speech Recogni?on technology provided students withimmediate feedback on their pronuncia?on and speaking skills. These awe-inspiring
technologies have tremendous poten?al as eﬀec?ve tools for addressing the challenges
faced by language students. The presenters demonstrated a profound understanding of thepoten?al applica?ons of this technology and its relevance to university L2 educa?on.
AFendees leg the presenta?on feeling inspired and mo?vated to explore the poten?al of
Speech Recogni?on and ChatGPT technology in their own teaching prac?ce. One aFendee
commented, "I am excited to see where this research will lead and how it can be applied inother L2 educa?on contexts."

25

Conference Report
Sustainable Futures in Language EducaHon
During the lunch break, par?cipants enjoyed a diverse selec?on of meals, including
vegetarian op?ons. Many aFendees had pre-purchased their lunch, while others took
advantage of addi?onal food choices beyond what the cafeteria oﬀered. Despite theongoing use of protec?ve shields, the atmosphere remained pleasant, with kind andfriendly individuals throughout the venue. It is worth no?ng that the food line extended
down the stairs, indica?ng the popularity of the lunch op?ons.
The agernoon poster session
featured a presenta?on by Geoﬀ Carr, where
he discussed the challenges faced andrewards gained from his interna?onal
collabora?ve online internship program,which included early career professionals
from an Australian university. These interns
were present via Zoom, adding important
perspec?ves to the inner workings of the
project. Their valuable insights made thesession par?cularly thought-provoking,shedding light on their experiences andsubstan?a?ng posi?ve language learning
student experiences. The presenta?on
Virtual internship in EFL: Insights fromstudents and interns

struck an interes?ng balance between
qualita?ve and quan?ta?ve data.

The parallel SIG forums included the highly aFended CUE SIG forum and MW SIG
forum. PSG forum aFendees engaged in discussions on peer feedback for pre-submission
manuscripts and par?cipated in a lively workshop on feedback language, ?tled "Reading
the Readers: Peer Support Readers' Reﬂec?ons on Feedback."

26

Conference Report
Sustainable Futures in Language EducaHon

Reading the readers: peer support readers’reﬂecHons on feedback
At the end of the day, par?cipants made their way to the buses that would
transport everyone to the dinner venue. The bus journey had a reminiscent feel of aschool trip, seXng the tone for a social event ﬁlled with posi?ve and vibrant energy.
AFendees engaged in lively and collegial discussions, providing another opportunity for
networking and strengthening connec?ons.

Social Event at Hamac de Paradis27Conference Report
Sustainable Futures in Language EducaHon
In conclusion, the conference provided a plaUorm for engaging conversa?ons andthe sharing of intersec?onal experiences. AFendees ac?vely par?cipated in the sessions,contribu?ng diverse perspec?ves and posing thought-provoking ques?ons. The conference
fostered a collegial and inclusive environment, where individuals from various backgrounds
were able to connect and engage with one another. The successful organiza?on of theevent, coupled with the lively social ac?vi?es, leg par?cipants with a memorable andenriching experience.

28

Column

Musings on MarkeLng:
On Your Mark: From ConcepLon to
PublicaLon

byJosh Kidd and Miklos Juhasz

29Musings on MarkeLng
On Your Mark: From ConcepHon to PublicaHon

Figure 1. On Your Mark cover image

30

Musings on MarkeLng
On Your Mark: From ConcepHon to PublicaHon
1. DescripLon
On Your Mark (OYM) is a high beginner/intermediate level speaking and listening
course book. The syllabus is organized around task-based content, which guides students indeveloping conversa?on skills through 14 popular Olympic sports topics. Each of the units
introduces the key vocabulary of the target sport, along with rules and interes?ng facts.
Subject content is presented through authen?c peer-to-peer model conversa?ons. This
course textbook is designed for universi?es, junior colleges, language schools, and highschools.
2. Our story
We have been colleagues and friends for a number of years. The concept for OYM
came about as the result of conversa?ons over lunch in the cafeteria at Waseda University.
We share a passion for teaching and sports, and over gakushoku, would frequently discuss
the lack of textbooks designed for sports science majors. We felt that there was a need andtoyed with the idea of wri?ng a textbook. Prior to puXng pen to paper, we decided to
conduct a preliminary analysis of whether there were, in fact, sports-based publica?ons
that we were unaware of. Our suspicions were conﬁrmed, and we commiFed to ﬁlling thisgap with a textbook designed speciﬁcally for Japanese students. Eighteen months later,
OYM was released.
3. Process
Once we had conﬁrmed that there was not a sports-based English textbook
designed for Japanese students, we developed our basic unit concept and iden?ﬁed whichsports we would include. The goal was to create a textbook that employed communica?velanguage teaching principles within a task-based framework. Ini?ally, we developed a list ofsports based on their popularity in Japan and abroad. We were conscious of the need toinclude contemporary sports such as bouldering, surﬁng, and skateboarding. Our next step
was to invite students and teachers based in Japan to complete a survey in order to
iden?fy the sports that they felt would be most appealing to Japanese students. The
results forced us to part with some of our personal favorites, cricket and keirin, yet enabled
us to compile a list of summer Olympic events. Once this list had been established, we

31Musings on MarkeLng
On Your Mark: From ConcepHon to PublicaHon
divided the sports between us based on experience and interests.
4. Format of Units
In structuring the units, we wanted to introduce a structure that would enable theteacher to select any unit and be conﬁdent of consistency. The unit structure is as follows:• Brief history of the sport• Trivia quiz
• Target vocabulary• Dialogue – includes key vocabulary and rules• Comprehension ques?ons• Pair work dicta?on – introduces interes?ng facts• Key conversa?on strategies with example dialogues• Extending the topic – review
Each unit begins with an icebreaker ac?vity designed to ac?vate prior knowledge.
Units start with a brief history of the target sport presented as a listening task wherestudents ﬁll in the gaps with notable dates and loca?ons. This is followed by a trivia quiz
containing surprising and liFle-known facts about the sport which students guess about.
The target vocabulary is presented next with a word-deﬁni?on matching ac?vity. The
following dialogue between the main characters introduces this vocabulary in context,
explains the rules of sports, and develops the storyline between the characters through ahumorous situa?on taking place while they are engaged in the target sport. The vocabulary
is then reviewed using word puzzles. Comprehension ques?ons are included ager eachdialogue. Finally, the main communica?ve ac?vity of each unit is pair dicta?on. Students
ﬁrst individually study sentences containing interes?ng facts or details about the sport, andthen read these aloud to their partners, who write the complete sentences down withoutlooking at the informa?on. In addi?on to the regular units structured in this manner, there
are two review units and a presenta?on component in the textbook.
5. NarraLve
We wanted the narra?ve between the primary characters to engage the students. The goal

32

Musings on MarkeLng
On Your Mark: From ConcepHon to PublicaHon
was to have two characters, one an accomplished sportsperson and the other a novice. The
more experienced friend would teach her peer about sports, which provided the premisefor introducing sports, rules, and key vocabulary.
The concept we developed was: Miyu and Li Yong are university students studying
sports science. Miyu, from Kanagawa, loves sports and is very athle?c. Li Yong, an exchange
student from China, is a gamer and a fan of Japanese pop culture. Li Yong aspires to learn
about diﬀerent sports, make friends, and get ﬁt. Miyu oﬀers to teach Li Yong about sports
and to help him ﬁnd a sport that he enjoys. Together, they explore a variety of popularsports.
6. Workﬂow
We worked both independently and collabora?vely in order to develop units.
During the week, we worked independently to research the sports and write units. We
shared a ﬁle online and frequently read each other's work in order to maintain consistency
and cohesion across the units. This was cri?cal in terms of maintaining a uniform level ofdiﬃculty and developing the narra?ve component. We met approximately once a weekand used this as an opportunity to debrief, share ideas, and talk through ques?ons andconcerns. We also spent longer blocks of ?me together, during which we set aside days towork side by side. These longer blocks were cri?cal to the wri?ng process. During the laterstages, we involved colleagues in the proofreading process.
7. IllustraLons
From the beginning, we intended this book to be richly illustrated but without any
use of photographs. We envisioned hand-drawn images for sports-related gear andequipment along with manga-style dialogues between the main characters in each unit
going over several pages. We also wanted to involve our own students in illustra?ng, notonly because we both had access to talented and mo?vated students but also because we
hoped that this method would result in the type of illustra?ons that would appeal to thisage group. A priority with illustra?ons was depic?ng Li Yong's transforma?on into a sportsloving student who gradually becomes more and muscular throughout the story. In

33

Musings on MarkeLng
On Your Mark: From ConcepHon to PublicaHon
addi?on to these sports-related images, we also designed icons for all repea?ng sec?ons(trivia, dialogue, dicta?on, etc.) to signpost the structure of each unit, but as we were both
inexperienced at graphics design, we found that they did not look consistent enough. Agersome online searching, we found an internet-based illustra?on company to help us develop
professional-looking icons.

Figure 2. Sample Illustra>ons
8. Publisher
We approached a number of poten?al publishers ager iden?fying them througha search of textbooks and online informa?on. The ini?al step we employed was to send a34

Musings on MarkeLng
On Your Mark: From ConcepHon to PublicaHon
brief overview of the textbook and a sample unit. All correspondence was sent in both
English and Japanese. We received a number of posi?ve responses, as well as theinevitable rejec?ons. We also received interest from publishers that expressed interest, yet
requested signiﬁcant format changes. Ager discussing op?ons, we met with one of the
publishers and pitched the book. During the nego?a?on, the publisher oﬀered us acontract with a set rate for the ﬁrst 500 copies and a percentage for addi?onal sales. We
then spent the next two months working with their copyeditor.
9. Experience teaching
One of the authors teaches English communica?on to sports science majors at aJapanese university, and On Your Mark was selected for these classes as the main coursebook upon its publica?on. As expected, these students appreciated a sports-themed
textbook and preferred it to the general English course materials they had been studying
previously. The book has been used successfully in this university for the past three years,
and it is intended to remain the main course book.

Figure 3. Future Plans

35

Musings on MarkeLng
On Your Mark: From ConcepHon to PublicaHon
10. Our plans for the 2nd ediLon
Our contract term with the current publisher of OYM is coming to an end, so we
decided to look for a new publisher to help us implement several improvements, andcreate a second edi?on. Our original plan with manga-style illustra?ons drawn by our own
students proved overly op?mis?c, and we were unable to achieve this goal, seFling insteadfor one main manga illustra?on showing our characters in the middle of a sport-related
ac?vity, and a smaller icon-style illustra?on of the sport itself near the end of each unit both black and white. We have ogen noted that design is essen?al in the Japanese market,
and in fact, the only cri?cism of OYM from students was about the lack of colorful
illustra?ons conﬁrming that this is indeed an area Japanese students have highexpecta?ons about. We would therefore like to follow our original plan for the manga-styleillustra?ons, hoping to ﬁnd a publisher with an in-house illustrator to make this possible.
We also wish to include an audio component to accompany the dialogues and some otherac?vi?es. Finally, we are planning to make some improvements to the teaching guide inorder to make the textbook easy to use even for inexperienced teachers.

36Column

ChaNerbot:
Prompt Revising for CEFR Levels
byAdam Murray37

ChaNerbot
Prompt Revising for CEFR Levels
Welcome to the inaugural column of "ChaFerbot.” In this column, I explore how
ar?ﬁcial intelligence tools can empower teachers and materials writers to adapt and creatematerials that beFer meet the needs of their students. Join me as I embark on a journey toharness the poten?al of cuXng-edge technology. Whether you're an experienced materials
writer looking for ways to enhance your content or just curious about how others are using
ar?ﬁcial intelligence tools, the inten?on of this column is explore the extraordinary
capabili?es of these tools and how they can be used to streamline and transform the waythat language learning materials are created.
In this itera?on, I will be looking at how AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Google
Bard can be used to create dialogues for users at various levels of English proﬁciency asmeasured by CEFR. Although both of these tools are fantas?c and capable of producing
gramma?cally correct dialogues, I decided to use ChatGPT because of the AI’s tendency towrite at a higher level of complexity (B2) instead of Bard’s preference to write at the A2level (see Appendix 4). To start the process, I used the following prompt:“Write a short dialogue about the weather between two colleagues.”
Within seconds, a 12-turn dialogue of approximately 300 words was generated by
ChatGPT (see Appendix 1). The dialogue is certainly comparable to one that can be foundin some textbooks. However, the overall dialogue seemed a bit s?lted and some of the
AWL vocabulary was repeated such as “deﬁnitely” and “task.”“Great but can you rewrite it to be a liNle friendlier and not repeat
adverbs and adjecLves? Also, give the speakers names.”
As instructed, ChatGPT revised the dialogue. Interes?ngly, the same AWL
vocabulary was used. The ﬁrst occurrence of “deﬁnitely” in “deﬁnitely ligs the mood” wasrephrased to “really ligs the spirits”. Also, the dialogue became easier to read.

38

ChaNerbot
Prompt Revising for CEFR Levels
Because ChatGPT has been trained by a wide variety of sources, it has a lot ofknowledge. Although my intui?on was that the revised dialogue was easier, I conﬁrmed
this with ChatGPT with this prompt:“What is the CEFR level of the above conversaLon?”
In a ﬂash, ChatGPT replied with B1 and described the aFributes of a B1 user:
The above conversaHon can be considered to be at a CEFR (Common
European Framework of Reference for Languages) level of B1. It
demonstrates the ability to engage in a conversaHon on familiar andeveryday topics, express opinions, make suggesHons, and coordinate plans.
The language used is generally clear and understandable, though there may
be some occasional errors or limitaHons in vocabulary and grammar.
For the ﬁnal itera?on, I prompted my loyal assistant:“FantasLc but can you rewrite to CEFR A2 level?”
Although the new dialogue was s?ll 12 turns in dura?on, the overall length of
dialogue was much shorter with a length of 218 words. AWL words such as “environment”
and “tasks” were removed. The idiom “seize the opportunity”, along with words such as“grab” and “stroll” were rephrased to make the dialogue more accessible.
Next, I performed a rudimentary vocabulary analysis with Compleat Lexical Tutor<www.lextutor.ca> As can be seen in Table 1, when ChatGPT rewrote the dialogue at lower
CEFR levels, it reduced the percentage of 2k words and academic words.
Level

1K

2k

AWL

Oﬀ-listOriginal

B2

84.46%

7.09%

3.04%

5.41%

Revised 1

B1

82.15%

7.07%

2.69%

8.08%

Revised 2

A2

81.22%

6.94%

2.04%

9.80%

Table 1: Vocabulary DistribuHon

39

ChaNerbot
Prompt Revising for CEFR Levels
In conclusion, I hope that this demonstra?on of how AI chatbots can be used tohelp you generate dialogues for classroom roleplays, handouts, and even textbooks has
been helpful. Even more importantly, these chatbots are excellent tools that can be used
for adap?ng exis?ng materials to make the vocabulary and gramma?cal complexity moresuitable for a speciﬁc group of students. I encourage you to experiment with chatbots tosee what they can do for you!

40

ChaNerbot
Prompt Revising for CEFR Levels
Appendix 1: Original Dialogue (B2)

A: Good morning! What a beau?ful day, isn't it?
B: Absolutely! The sun is shining, and there's a gentle breeze. It's perfect weather for awalk during lunch break.
A: I couldn't agree more. It's such a pleasant change from the rainy days we've had
recently. I'm glad we can enjoy some sunshine today.
B: It deﬁnitely ligs the mood. I feel more energized and moLvated to tackle the day's
tasks. Plus, it's a nice break from the usual oﬃce environment.
A: I completely understand. I was actually thinking of taking my laptop outside and working
from the park later. It'll be refreshing and relaxing.
B: That's a great idea! I might join you too. It's always nice to have a change of scenery
while geXng some work done. We could even grab some iced coﬀees on the way.
A: Perfect! I'll bring a blanket, and we can ﬁnd a shady spot under a tree. It'll be like a mini
picnic while being produc?ve.
B: I'm looking forward to it. It sounds like a delighUul way to spend the agernoon. Let's
enjoy this wonderful weather while it lasts.
A: Deﬁnitely. It's these simple moments that make work more enjoyable. And who knows
when we'll have such pleasant weather again?
B: You're right. We should make the most of it. Let's get our work done eﬃciently and thensoak up the sun. It'll be a great day.
A: Agreed! I'm grateful for days like this. Alright, let's ﬁnish up our tasks and make ouroutdoor work session a reality. Cheers to a produc?ve and sunny day!
B: Cheers! Here's to a produc?ve day and some well-deserved relaxaLon under the sun.
Let's make it happen!

(271 words) / AWL words in bold

41

ChaNerbot
Prompt Revising for CEFR Levels
Appendix 2: Revision (B1)

A: Alex
B: Sarah

A: Good morning! What a gorgeous day, huh?
B: Absolutely! The sun is shining, and there's a gentle breeze. It's perfect for a lunch?me
stroll.
A: I totally agree! It's such a nice change from all the rainy days we've had. I'm glad we canenjoy some sunshine today.
B: It really ligs the spirits. I feel more energized and moLvated to tackle our tasks. Plus, it'sa refreshing break from the usual oﬃce environment.
A: I totally get you. I was actually thinking of taking my laptop outside and working fromthe park later. It'll be so nice and relaxing.
B: That's a fantas?c idea! Mind if I join you? It's always great to have a change of scenery
while geXng work done. We can even grab some iced coﬀees on the way.
A: That sounds perfect! I'll bring a blanket, and we can ﬁnd a shady spot under a tree. It'll
be like a mini picnic while being produc?ve.
B: I'm really looking forward to it. It sounds like a delighUul way to spend the agernoon.
Let's make the most of this amazing weather.
A: Deﬁnitely. It's these simple moments that make work more enjoyable. And who knows
when we'll have such beau?ful weather again?
B: You're absolutely right. We should seize the opportunity. Let's wrap up our tasks
eﬃciently and then bask in the sun. It's going to be an awesome day.
A: I couldn't agree more. I'm grateful for days like this. Alright, let's ﬁnish up and make ouroutdoor work session a reality. Cheers to a produc?ve and sunny day, Alex!
B: Cheers, Sarah! Here's to a produc?ve day and some well-deserved relaxaLon under thesun. Let's make it happen!

(273 words) / AWL words in bold

42

ChaNerbot
Prompt Revising for CEFR Levels
Appendix 3: Revision 2 (A2)

A: Good morning! Nice weather today, huh?
B: Yes, it's great! The sun is shining, and there's a gentle breeze. Perfect for a walk, don't
you think?
A: I agree! It's a pleasant change from the rainy days we had. I'm happy we can enjoy somesunshine.
B: It's upliging. I feel more energized and moLvated. Plus, it's nice to be outside instead ofin the oﬃce.
A: I get it. I was thinking of working from the park later. It'll be nice and relaxing.
B: Good idea! Can I join? It's good to have a change of scenery while working. Maybe we
can get some iced coﬀees too.
A: Sure! I'll bring a blanket, and we can ﬁnd a shady spot. It'll be like a mini picnic while wework.
B: I'm excited. It sounds like a fun way to spend the agernoon. Let's enjoy the nice weather.
A: Deﬁnitely. These moments make work more enjoyable. And who knows when we'll havesuch good weather again?
B: You're right. Let's make the most of it. Finish our work and then enjoy the sun. It'll be agood day.
A: I agree. I'm thankful for days like this. Alright, let's ﬁnish up and work outside. Cheers toa sunny and produc?ve day, Alex!
B: Cheers, Sarah! Here's to a produc?ve day and some relaxaLon under the sun. Let's do it!

(218 words) / AWL words in bold

43

ChaNerbot
Prompt Revising for CEFR Levels
Appendix 4: Google Bard Dialogue (A2)

“Write a short dialogue about the weather between two colleagues.”

A: Wow, it's really hot outside today, isn't it?
B: Yeah, it's supposed to be in the mid-90s today. I'm glad I brought my sunglasses.
A: Me too. I'm also glad I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt. I would be miserable in a suit
today.
B: I know what you mean. I'm going to change into something more comfortable as soon as
I get to my desk.
A: Good idea. I think I'm going to go grab a cold drink from the vending machine.
B: Sounds good. I'll join you.

The two colleagues then go to the vending machine and get a cold drink. They sit down attheir desks and conHnue their work. As they work, they conHnue to talk about the weather.

A: I can't believe it's so hot in May. It usually doesn't get this hot un?l June.
B: I know. It's crazy. I'm star?ng to think we're going to have a really hot summer.
A: I hope not. I hate the heat.
B: Me too. But I guess we'll just have to make the best of it.

The two colleagues then conHnue to work, trying to ignore the heat.

44

Feature ArLcle

Key Lesson:
Preparing Teaching Materials for an
ESP Course in Japanby
MaNhew Quinn

45

Key Lesson
Preparing Teaching Materials
1. IntroducLon
Teachers preparing to teach an English course are faced with the ques?on of what
to use in the class to fulﬁll the goals of the stakeholders. Usually teachers choose between
an appropriate textbook, their own teaching materials, or a blending of the two. Recently,
I embarked on a journey into the world of English for Speciﬁc Purposes (ESP) teaching andwas faced with the same choice. Using informa?on garnered from a needs analysis (NA), I
opted to create my own. This paper details the steps taken to create some of the materials
for the course in the hope that others may beneﬁt from my experience, and it may
contribute in some way to the ﬁeld of materials design. This paper begins with abackground of the course and the students, including a summary of the NA. Following that,
I write about the link between theory and prac?ce and elaborate on the approach andframework which I adopted to create my materials. I also present the materials and explain
how they can be used and adapted including informa?on on the importance of informa?on
gaps, pilo?ng materials, evalua?ng materials, and assessing the learners’ performance.
2. Background of the students and the course
The ESP course was to be taught onsite at a company. The NA, in the form of a 16item ques?onnaire (74 ques?ons in total), was distributed online to the human resourcesmanager of the company through Google Forms, and a follow-up interview was conducted
to gain insight into the needs of the learners and the company. A summary of the NA ispresented in Figure 1. The English course can be described as a business English course at
an interna?onal company which required 5 of its employees to improve their English ability
in interna?onal mee?ngs aFended by representa?ves from Brazil, Germany, theNetherlands, Italy, and the US.
3. The Link Between Theory and PracLce
The online mee?ngs held in English at the company can be described as a Business
English as a Lingua Franca situa?on (BELF). BELF is similar to English as a Lingua Franca (seeJenkins, 2000) in that the par?cipants use English, which is not their mother tongue, tocommunicate.

46

Key Lesson
Preparing Teaching Materials

CEFR

The two diﬀer in that BELF speciﬁcally refers to the use of English in business situa?ons.
Kankaanranta and Louhiala-Salminen (2013, p. 28) write about BELF and highlight BELF
situa?ons as diﬀerent, 'highly situa?on-speciﬁc, dynamic, idiosyncra?c, and... tolerant of
diﬀerent varie?es [of English]’. The authors suggest that BELF speakers need to haveaccommoda?on skills and the ability to comprehend diﬀerent varie?es of English, and theyhighlight the importance of ‘clarity, brevity, directness and politeness’ as important forsuccessful communica?on (Kankaanranta & Louhiala-Salminen, 2013, p. 27). In the case of
BELF, communica?ve competence largely comprises business knowledge, mul?culturalcompetence and competence in business as a lingua franca (Louihala-Salminen &Kankaaranta, 2011).
Besides the importance of such skills highlighted above, the NA (Figure 1)
highlighted the relevance of building conﬁdence through designing a course and materials
that would be level appropriate, giving encouraging feedback, and providing scaﬀolding
exercises to ensure the learners were duly supported. The informa?on from the NA
provided me with a focal point around which I could create a syllabus for the course
focusing mostly on simula?ng in-class mee?ngs - highlighted as the situa?on in which thestudents would have to use English and the situa?on that needed to be improved (Figure 1,
points 5 and 9). Upon reﬂec?ng on the data from the NA, it was now ?me to consider anapproach.

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Key Lesson
Preparing Teaching Materials
3.1 Which approach would serve the learners best?
Communica?ve Language Teaching is a communica?ve approach to language
learning that acknowledges there is more to communica?on than simply understanding
gramma?cal, lexical and phonological rules. The approach emphasises ‘the communica?onof meaning in interac?on rather than the prac?ce and manipula?on of gramma?cal forms
in isola?on’ (Lightbown & Spada, 2018, p. 215). In order for successful communica?on totake place, the interlocutors must develop their communica?ve competence (Hymes,1972). Canale and Swain (1980) further developed the idea of communica?ve competence,
recognising that communica?ve competence is made up of other competencies such as
discourse competence, strategic competence, gramma?cal competence and sociolinguis?ccompetence. Savignon (2007, p. 209) describes the importance of promo?ng ‘func?onal
language ability through learner par?cipa?on in communica?ve events’. At the base of theapproach is the understanding that an ability to communicate can be developed andnurtured by exposing the learners to ‘real communica?on’ in the classroom. Meaningfulcommunica?on, including taking risks and using paFerns not memorised (Savignon, 2007,
p. 209), can aid the language learning process and prepare the learners for the realsitua?ons they may meet outside the class. The approach has been interpreted innumerous ways (see Wada, 1994; Sato, 2002; Ohkuno, 2007).
Referring to the NA, it was apparent that this approach was a good ﬁt to help meetthe objec?ves of the course, allowing the learners to use their knowledge of English in
dynamic, challenging role-play situa?ons (communica?ve events) to develop theircommunica?ve ability. Consequently, this was the approach taken and referred to in thedevelopment of the materials for the course. I was now at a stage to incorporate mychosen approach into a suitable framework.
4. Choosing a Framework
A good framework takes into account not only informa?on from the NA but also
aspects of second language acquisi?on theory and design (Jolly & Bolitho, 2011). Thereexists a plethora of frameworks upon which materials designers can base their materials(see Tomlinson, 2013).

48

Key Lesson
Preparing Teaching Materials
Such frameworks ensure that the materials designer can create materials which fulﬁl bothprac?cal and theore?cal principles such as those iden?ﬁed by Nunan (1988, in Tomlinson,
2013, p. 98):
• the need for authen?city• the need to s?mulate interac?on• the need to allow learners to focus on formal aspects of language• the need to encourage learners to develop the skills necessary for outside theclass
Incorpora?ng the principles above, I considered what teaching materials would best
meet the goals of the learners and the company and decided the simula?on of mee?ng
scenarios should play a key role.
5. The Materials
Tomlinson (2013, p. 2) describes language learning materials as ‘anything which isused by teachers or learners to facilitate the learning of language’. As both a language
learner as well as a teacher, I have used various materials such as textbooks, videos, music,
and newspaper ar?cles. The beneﬁts and non-beneﬁts of materials are presented byauthors such as Tomlinson and Masuhara (2018), Hutchinson and Torres (1994), andThornbury (2013). Crawford (2002) presents two posi?ons related to materials:'debilita?ng crutch’ or 'helpful scaﬀold’. In my experience, I have found them to be a‘helpful scaﬀold’ providing the teacher and learner with a base from which to explore
language teaching and learning. Any ‘debilita?ng crutch’ aspect could be mi?gated against
by gradually weaning the learner from the materials as their skills and conﬁdence grow.
Ager devising the curriculum for my ESP course which centred around theprofessional situa?ons such as giving presenta?ons, aFending mee?ngs, chairing mee?ngs,
and taking the notes in mee?ngs which the learners would need to navigate in English, I
was at the stage of deciding on the materials to be used in the lessons. Referring to the NA,
I noted that the materials had to:• be relevant to the language situa?ons highlighted

49

Key Lesson
Preparing Teaching Materials• be level appropriate• be aFrac?ve, engaging, and easy to use• maximise learner talking ?me• boost the conﬁdence of the learner• be adaptable• aid the acquisi?on of English to improve the learners’ performance
Ini?ally, I considered using a textbook, but the short length of the course and thelimited ?me I had before its start meant that I could not source an appropriate book.
Addi?onally, McGrath’s (2016) sugges?on that teacher-designed materials can be ﬁnetuned to the learner’s needs, coupled with the importance of learner-centred material(Hutchinson and Waters, 1987), provided the impetus that encouraged me to design my
own materials. The materials which I present focus on business mee?ngs. The genre of
mee?ngs provided the perfect situa?on in which the learners could prac?ce various roles
in group communica?on and also prac?ce transferable conversa?onal strategies, such asparaphrasing, checking, approxima?ng, asking for repe??on and clariﬁca?on, appealing for
help, summarising, using discourse markers and hesita?on devices (Dornyei & Thurrell,
1994, p. 44), examples of which are highlighted in Figure 2. Such conversa?onal skills arehighlighted by Kankaanranta and Louhiala-Salminen (2013) as essen?al for successfulcommunica?on in BELF environments and as such would be taught and reviewed
repeatedly during the course.

50Key Lesson
Preparing Teaching Materials
The materials I created (Appendix A) are a series of tasks which exhibit a clear
progression in diﬃculty and build up to a ﬁnal ac?vity that simulates a business mee?ng(task 4, sheets 2, 3 and 4). The tasks aim to create interest and prac?ce essen?al language(Nunan, 2004). To aid the development of the materials, I referred to McGrath’s (2016, p.
95) worksheet layout and general design considera?ons’ which highlighted the desirabilityof the following:
1. a ?tle
2. clear instruc?ons
3. one or more examples
4. numbered items
5. the need to cater for early ﬁnishers
The aim of the materials is to lead the learners to the goal of taking part in a
mee?ng. The introductory tasks on sheet 1 (Figures 3, 4 and 5) introduce the topic andprovide opportuni?es for the learners to produce and review the language and receive
feedback before moving on to the ﬁnal task of applying the language in Task 4 (sheets 2, 3,
and 4). The tasks are clearly headed to provide clarity and are followed by a descrip?on ofwhat the learner is required to do. This provides the learners who are conﬁdent in readingin English with the opportunity to understand the situa?on before it is verbally explained.
The visuals provide examples of possible re?rement presents for a co-worker, helping thelearner engage with the task visually and not just linguis?cally.
One of my goals was to create materials that could be reused both by the teacher
and the learner. This aspect of design would allow the autonomous learner to revisit thematerials and ‘develop their own alterna?ves according to their needs and personal
preferences’ (Dubin & Olshtain, 1986, p. 30), especially ager the course has ﬁnished.
Consequently, the main ac?vity (task 4) was designed as a template into which the learner
could add other mee?ng topics besides the one suggested in the worksheet.
6. Task DescripLon and ObjecLves
This sec?on details the series of tasks which lead up to the simula?on of a business
mee?ng. In total, there are 4 tasks and 4 sheets.

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Key Lesson
Preparing Teaching Materials
6.1 Task 1 (sheet 1)

Figure 3. Task 1 from the Business MeeLng Materials
Task 1 (Figure 3) requires the learners to think of a re?rement present for a coworker, a suitable loca?on for a re?rement party, and a convenient day and ?me for theparty. This topic was chosen because it was deemed to be a poten?al work-related mee?ng
topic and also seemed a good subject about which the learners could explore the languageof mee?ngs. It also allows the teacher to introduce informa?on gaps. The space
underneath the explana?on of task 1 is for the learners to write down their ideas including
reasons why. The graphics are visual sugges?ons of possible presents.
6.2 Task 2 (sheet 1)

Figure 4. Task 2 from the Business MeeLng Materials

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Key Lesson
Preparing Teaching Materials
Task 2 (Figure 4) acts as a review task centred around the role of the chairperson.
The learners are required to write the words in the correct order to form coherent
sentences. The objec?ve is to check the linguis?c knowledge of the students to see if they
can remember the paFerns previously taught. It also reintroduces the learners toimportant language used in mee?ngs necessary for the ﬁnal ac?vity on sheets 2, 3 and 4.
The ques?ons are highlighted because they are referenced in Task 3.
6.3 Task 3 (sheet 1)
hiFigure 5. Space for the learners to write answers to quesLons highlighted in Task 2
Task 3 (Figure 5) requires the learners to respond to the ques?ons highlighted intask 2. Up to and including task 3, the learners have the opportunity to share theirthoughts and answers. The teacher also has an ac?ve role - checking ideas and providing
correc?ve feedback.
6.4 Task 4
Task 4 is the ﬁnal applica?on which simulates a mee?ng. There are three roles on
three separate sheets: (A) the chairperson - sheet 2 (B) the secretary - sheet 3 (C) an
aFendee - sheet 4. These three roles will now be looked at and described individually.

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Key Lesson
Preparing Teaching Materials
Role A: the chairperson (sheet 2)
hiFigure 6. Task 4: a descripLon of the task and the role
A descrip?on of the task speciﬁc to each role is provided at the top of the pagealong with a graphic which provides a visual descrip?on of the situa?on and illustrates theroles.

Figure 7. A list of speciﬁc direcLons to be checked oﬀ by the chairperson
On sheet 2, the learner occupying the chairperson’s role is able to ‘check oﬀ’
speciﬁc ac?ons (ﬁgure 7) listed in the order in which they may occur in a mee?ng to makesure they are performing the moves typical of this genre. The boFom half of the sheet(ﬁgure 8) provides the agenda for the mee?ng with bullet points and some scaﬀolding tohelp the learners carry out their roles

54

Key Lesson
Preparing Teaching Materials

Figure 8. A secLon of the agenda
Role B: the secretary (sheet 3)
The secretary’s role can be either passive wherein the learner assumes the role justof listener and only takes note of what is said, or ac?ve wherein the secretary ac?vely
contributes to the content.
Role C: an aNendee (sheet 4)
The aFendee’s role is to contribute to the discussion by giving sugges?ons andreasoning why. In the agenda sec?on (ﬁgure 9), there is some scaﬀolding in the way ofsuggested sentence paFerns to help the learner complete the task.

Figure 9. A secLon of sheet 4 showing some scaﬀolding for the learner to use

55Key Lesson
Preparing Teaching Materials
6.5. Summary of the materials• 4 sheets of A4 paper• 4 tasks in total• sheet 1, tasks 1, 2, and 3- introduces the topic and allows the paFerns to be prac?ced• sheet 2, 3 and 4- represent the roles of chairperson, secretary and aFendee respec?vely
Each learner should receive all 4 sheets, but only the sheet speciﬁc to their role will
be used during the simula?on of a mee?ng.
7. AdapLng the Materials
Being able to adapt materials to allow for repeated use and to accommodate
diﬀerent proﬁciency levels and learning styles is an important aspect of materials design(McGrath, 2016, pp. 69-78). The materials I designed can be adapted in the following ways:
1. The number of people playing the role of aFendee can be increased toaccommodate more learners.
2. The ?tle and the objec?ves of the mee?ng can be changed to allow a diﬀerent
discussion with alterna?ve objec?ves.
3. The materials can be made more diﬃcult by taking away the scaﬀolding.
4. The learners can use the template by themselves to prac?ce the genre of
mee?ngs.
5. The learners can easily swap roles.
8. InformaLon Gaps
As would be the case in a real mee?ng, all the learners are aware of the topic. The
aim of communica?ve language teaching is to make the simula?on as real as possible tofacilitate language learning in a ‘truly communica?ve seXng’ (Savignon, 1972, p. 8).

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Key Lesson
Preparing Teaching Materials
One way to achieve this is through informa?on-, reasoning- and opinion-gap ac?vi?es(McGrath, 2016, pp. 115-116). This important method of crea?ng more authen?cconversa?on can be achieved by providing the learners with conﬂic?ng informa?on. For
example, one aFendee at the mee?ng is given informa?on about a gig and a ?me and aplace for the party, but another aFendee is given informa?on sugges?ng that the
informa?on is not appropriate for reasons such as the person re?ring already has such apresent and the suggested ?me and date for the party conﬂicts with another plan. Such‘gaps’ would push the learners into nego?a?ng the situa?on and using theircommunica?ve competence to fulﬁl the task.
9. PiloLng the Materials
Materials for teaching should be evaluated when necessary, and if they do notmeet the needs of the learner, they can be redesigned, scrapped, or shelved for another?me. Donovan (1998) describes the process of pilo?ng materials as an important stage in
reﬁning the materials before they are used. Eager to learn from my peers and also to check
whether the materials met the objec?ves, I solicited feedback from three colleagues. To aid
them in their assessment, I provided them with the following list from McGrath (2016,
appendix 5.7):
1. Visual appeal - Does the worksheet look aFrac?ve?
2. Clarity - Is the layout clear? Is there suﬃcient space?
3. Purpose - Does the worksheet focus on a genuine problem for the students?
4. OrganisaLon - Does [the worksheet] allow for learners of diﬀerent levels toachieve a measure of success?
5. Language and Context - Are instruc?ons economically expressed? Is thelanguage correct? Do the exercises lead students to produce language which isnatural and meaningful for them?
6. Overall Value - How will comple?ng the worksheet beneﬁt students?
Overall, the feedback was posi?ve. One reviewer ques?oned whether there wasenough space in task 2 (sheet 1) for the learner to rewrite the sentences in the correct
order. In response, I created more space to address this issue. In addi?on to pilo?ng thematerials, I also planned to evaluate the materials.

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Key Lesson
Preparing Teaching Materials
10. During-use and Post-use Materials EvaluaLon
Concerning the evalua?on of materials, ‘whilst-use and post-use evalua?ons can be
extremely valuable’ (Tomlinson, 2011, p. 296). Evalua?on of materials is important toassess the strengths and weaknesses of the materials and to conﬁrm whether theobjec?ves of the materials were met. McGrath (2016, pp. 199-215) suggests a triangula?onof analyses from learners, teacher, and observer. In my case, informa?on was gathered bymyself and from the learners. Whilst the learners were using the materials, I could observe
how they interacted with each other (during-use evalua?on). The learners had no
problems understanding the direc?ons for the tasks; however, two of the learners
men?oned that task 2 (sheet 1) was diﬃcult to ﬁnish in the ?me allocated. I made a noteof the feedback and resolved make the sentences a liFle easier to understand by reducing
the number of words for future classes.
During task 4, the learners provided more input than I had expected which allowed
the role-play to con?nue for longer. This was a welcome surprise as the aim of thecommunica?ve task was to prac?ce a business mee?ng similar to the ones they actually
have to aFend which can be up to 60 minutes long (ﬁgure 1, point 6). Upon comple?on of
the exercise, I asked the learners for feedback about the materials. The feedback was
posi?ve, but as Tomlinson (2011, p. 296) notes, asking for feedback directly for the
purposes of evalua?on may result in polite and cau?ous answers which can make true
evalua?on diﬃcult. This highlights the importance of an observer or the use of anonymous
ques?onnaires.
11. Assessment
To assess whether the learner successfully completed the communica?ve task, aperformance assessment is ﬁXng. As Norris et al. (1998, p. 15, in Nunan, 2004, p. 142)
note, the approach has the following beneﬁts: it approximates real-life situa?ons, it is adirect predictor of ability in par?cular language seXngs, and through the observa?on of
the performance, the evaluator can answer whether the learner can perform adequately
or not. There are various methods of assessing the learners’ language ability. Assessment

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Key Lesson
Preparing Teaching Materials
can take place pre-, while- and post-learning. An important point is ‘assessment should
reﬂect what has been taught’ (Nunan, 2004, p. 138). Assessment was carried out in two
main ways:• observa?on of the learners in the main communica?ve ac?vi?es• a paper test to assess grammar, reading, wri?ng, and listening skills
hi

Figure 10. An assessment sheet for use by the teacher during the role play
During the role-plays, each learner had their own part to play, so the assessment
was conducted solely by the teacher. The focus was on whether the learners could
understand the interlocutor successfully. In the role play, I used an assessment sheet(ﬁgure 10) to highlight areas of success and areas that needed further improvement. A
score from 0 to 10, represen?ng low ability and high ability respec?vely, was assigned toeach learner.

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Key Lesson
Preparing Teaching Materials
12. Conclusion
My experience teaching an ESP course for a BELF situa?on was a demanding but
interes?ng experience. Referring to the academic literature, I was able to apply theknowledge, such as the need for a comprehensive NA and the importance of a thoroughframework for materials design, to design and create a course that aFempted to meet theneeds of the stakeholders involved. The experience highlighted the importance of athorough needs analysis, an appropriate approach and framework, pilo?ng the materials,
and evalua?ng the materials. I agree with Masuhara (2006, p. 261) who suggests that‘materials development is one of the most eﬀec?ve approaches to teacher development’.
The knowledge and experience gained in the prepara?on and teaching of this course willundoubtedly be put into prac?ce elsewhere.

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Preparing Teaching Materials
13. References
Canale, M. & Swain, M. (1980) ‘Theore?cal bases of communica?ve approaches tosecond language teaching and tes?ng’, Applied Linguis?cs, 1, pp.1-47.
Crawford, J. (2002) ‘The role of materials in the language classroom: ﬁnding thebalance’, in Richards, J.C. and Renandya, W.A. (eds.) Methodology in language
teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.80-91.
Donovan, P. (1998) ‘Pilo?ng – a publisher’s view’ in Tomlinson, B. (ed.) Materials
development in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.
149-189.
Dornyei, Z. & Thurrell, S. (1994) ‘Teaching conversa?onal skills intensively: course
content and ra?onale’, ELT Journal, 48(1), pp.40-49.
Dubin, F. & Olshtain, E. (1986) Course Design. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hutchinson, T. and Torres, E. (1994) ‘The textbook as agent of change’, English language
teaching journal, 48/4: 315-328, Available at: hFp://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/ viewdoc/
download?doi=10.1.1.476.1187&rep=rep1&type=pdf (Accessed: 10 November,2020).
Hymes, D. (1972) ‘On communica?ve competence’ in Pride, J. B. and Holmes, J. (eds.)
Sociolinguis?cs. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Jolly, D. & Bolitho, R. (2011). ‘A framework for materials wri?ng’, in Tomlinson, B. (ed.)
Materials development in language teaching. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, pp. 90-115.
Kankaanranta, A. & Louhiala-Salminen, L. (2013). ‘What language does global businessspeak? - The concept and development of BELF’, Iberica, 26, pp. 17-34.
Lightbown, P. & Spada, N. (2018). How languages are learned. 4th ed. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Masuhara, H. (2006) ‘Materials as a development tool’, in Mukundan, J. (ed.) Readingson ELT Materials II. Pearson Malaysia: Petaling Jaya.

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Masuhara, H. (2011) ‘What do teachers really want from coursebooks?’, in Tomlinson,
B. (ed.) Materials development in language teaching. 2nd ed. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, pp. 236-266.
McGrath, I. (2016) Materials evalua?on and design for language teaching. 2nd ed.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Nunan, D. (2004) Task-based language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Ohkuno, H. (2007) ‘A cri?cal discussion on the ac?on plan to cul?vate “Japanese withEnglish abili?es”’, The Journal of Asia TEFL, 4(4), pp. 133-158.
Sato, K. (2002) ‘Prac?cal understandings of communica?ve language teaching andteacher development’, in: Savignon, S. (ed.) Interpre?ng communica?ve language
teaching: contexts and concerns in teacher educa?on. Yale University Press: New
Haven, pp.41-81.
Savignon, S. (1972) ‘Communica?ve competence: an experiment in foreign language
training’, Centre for Curriculum Development, Philadelphia.
Savignon, S. (2007) ‘Beyond communica?ve language teaching: what’s ahead?’, Journalof Pragma?cs, 39, pp. 207-220.
Thornbury, S. (2013) ‘Resis?ng coursebooks’ in Gray, J. (ed.) Cri?cal perspec?ves on
language teaching materials. Palgrave Macmillan (Kindle edi?on, Chapter 10: pp.
4154- 4550).
Tomlinson, B. (2011) ‘Comments on part c’, in Tomlinson, B (ed.) Materials
development in language teaching, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
pp. 296-300.
Tomlinson, B. (2013) ‘Developing principled frameworks for materials development’, inTomlinson, B. (ed.) Developing materials for language teaching, 2nd ed. London:
Bloomsbury, pp. 95-118.
Tomlinson, B. and Masuhara, H. (2018) The complete guide to the theory and prac?ceof materials development for language learning. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.
Wada, M. (1994) The course of study for senior high school: foreign languages.
Kairyudo: Tokyo.

62Key Lesson
Preparing Teaching Materials: Worksheet 1

63Key Lesson
Preparing Teaching Materials: Worksheet 264Key Lesson
Preparing Teaching Materials: Worksheet 2

65Key Lesson
Preparing Teaching Materials: Worksheet 3

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Key Lesson
Preparing Teaching Materials: Worksheet 467

Messages
Recent AddiHons to the Materials Writers Showcaseh`ps://sites.google.com/view/mwsigshowcase

Title: Widgets Inc.: A task-based course in workplace
EnglishAuthors: Marcos Benevides and Chris Valvona
ISBN: 9781941140000
Publisher: Atama-ii Books
Type: Speaking, Reading, Wri?ng, Listening
Learning Environment: University, Business Classes
CEFR Level: A2 Elementary, B1 Intermediate, B2 Upper
Intermediate, C1 Advanced
URL: hFps://www.widgepedia.com/index.php?
?tle=Widgets_Inc.
Contact: publisher@atama-ii.com
DescripLon: Widgets Inc. is an ESL/EFL course employing a 'strong' task-based language
teaching (TBLT) approach. The syllabus is organized into six connected stages, and projects
and tasks are arranged by rela?ve task complexity rather than by language forms.

Title: The Beau?ful Game: English for Football...or Soccer
Author: Kirsten Waechter
ISBN: 979-8986487007
Publisher: Sports English Press
Type: Speaking, Reading, Wri?ng, Listening, English forSpeciﬁc Purposes
Learning Environment: University, Business Classes,
Conversa?on Schools, football/soccer academies,organiza?ons, teams
CEFR Level: B1 Intermediate, B2 Upper Intermediate
URL: hFps://sportsenglish.org/the-beau?ful-gameContact: sportsEnglish1@gmail.com
DescripLon: The Beau?ful Game is the ideal course for anyone who needs to communicate
about football...or soccer in English; in other words, it is the perfect learning tool for players,
coaches, staﬀ, scouts, referees, journalists, bloggers, agents, and fans.

68Messages
An Announcement from the Writers’ Peer Support Group

Workshops from the PSG!
The JALT Writers’ Peer Support Group (PSG) has begun a series of workshops designed tohelp members write, publish, and review academic work. To register for the workshops,
turn your phone sideways and scan the link below!

Upsized for your scanning convenience!

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Call for Submissions
We are currently seeking:•Research ar?cles•

Long-form essays about your experience•

Long-form essays outlining the broad scope of your research•

Work you have created and are willing to share•

Book / Materials reviews•

Conference / Mee?ng recaps

The full details of what we publish are listed on our website at our submissions page.
However, we are not limited to those categories. Between the Keys, like materials wri?ng
itself, is always a revision-in-progress.
If you’re not sure what kind of ar?cle you have, send it anyway. Put the word “pitch” inyour subject line and send it to submissions@materialswriters.org.
We can’t wait to hear from you.

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Contributors
Musings on MarkeLng
Josh Kidd is an associate professor in the English program at Utsunomiya
University. Josh completed his PhD in Applied Linguis?cs at Macquarie University
in Sydney. His research interests include iden?ty, teacher professional
development, English for General Academic Purposes (EGAP) and cogni?vesciences.
Miklos Juhasz is a lecturer at both Waseda University and Hakuoh University. He
holds a Master’s degree in English Language teaching from the University ofReading. His academic research interests include intercultural communica?on andcollabora?ve learning.
Key LessonMa`hew Quinn has been teaching in Japan since the early 2000s.
Since coming to Japan, he has taught english at a variety of businesses andschools. He holds a Masters in Applied Linguis?cs and TESOL and currently
teaches English at Sakushin Gakuin University.
Illustra?ons provided courtesy of Azusa Kato.
Feature: From Zero to Textbook in Ten Months
Joshua Lee Solomon is a lecturer in the Hirosaki University Center for Liberal Arts
Development & Prac?ces and a teacher in the university’s Self Access Learning
Center, the English Lounge. He holds a doctorate in East Asian Languages andCiviliza?ons from the University of Chicago and his EFL research interests are on
the use of culturally-familiar materials in language teaching. In addi?on, he is a
researcher and translator of Japanese-language literature, dialect, and local
culture.
jsolomon@hirosaki-u.ac.jp

71Contributors
Reik Jagno is a professor in the Hirosaki University Center for Liberal Arts
Development & Prac?ces and a teacher in the university’s Self Access Learning
Center, the English Lounge. He holds a doctorate in History from the Georg-August
University GöXngen. His main interest in research lays in English as Global
Language in EFL. Furthermore, he is researching the topic of transfer of knowledge
in Meiji-?me educa?onal ins?tu?ons.
r.jagno@hirosaki-u.ac.jp
PanSIG Report
Author: Kinsella Valies, is an Assistant Professor at Jissen Women’s University inTokyo, Japan. She is ac?ve in several interna?onal, educa?onal organiza?ons andvolunteers as the JALT Writers’ Peer Support Group Chair. Research interests
include forma?ve speaking assessment, and learner empowerment.
Contributor: Geoﬀ Carr, a tenured Associate Professor at Asahikawa City
University, delivers instruc?on in CLIL literature, seminar, and survey courses. Hisleadership roles include guiding the online internship program and chairing the
University's Interna?onal Coopera?on CommiFee. Presently, his research centerson itera?ve feedback methodologies for student wri?ng and the development ofhybrid assessment strategies in response to emerging LLM trends in educa?on.
Contributor: Josh Kidd (please see Dr. Kidd’s lis?ng under Musings on Marke>ng.)
Contributor: Bethany Lacy is an English instructor in Juntendo University’s Facultyof Liberal Arts program. She teaches CLIL classes focusing on humani?es and social
sciences while incorpora?ng digital and visual literacy into her curricula. Her
research focuses on mul?modal teaching strategies in a foreign language context.

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Contributors
Feature: Word AssociaLon and the L2 Mental Lexicon (Issue 31.2)
Makada McBean is a passionate researcher from Jamaica who has spent over 7
years in Japan working with ESL learners and educators at all levels. Her research
centers around the intricacies of second language learning and the impact of
mo?va?on in the success or failure of learning a new language.

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Acknowledgements
Between the Keys and the Materials Design SIG wish to thank the following individuals fortheir help in designing, ediHng, and producing this issue:• Joel Neﬀ• Stephen Bridge• Adam Murray• Marcus Grandon• Forrest Nelson• John Carle• Rob Olsen• Kinsella Valies

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MW SIG Resources
MW SIG Website
All the basic informa?on about the SIG is here.
MW SIG Publica?on: Between the Keys
We accept submissions all year round.
MW SIG Showcase
Website featuring textbooks created by SIG members.
MW SIG YouTube Playlist
Please "like" and subscribe to the channel.
MW SIG Facebook Page
Please "like" and follow the page for the latest updates.

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Copyright
All ar?cles are the copyright of their respec?ve authors. JALT Materials Writers SIG
publishes Between the Keys under a Crea?ve Commons BY-SA license. This allows us tocollect and re-publish ar?cles at any ?me; however, full aFribu?on will always be given to
all authors.

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